


Engaging

by Canarii



Category: Sanctuary (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Follow-up, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-07
Updated: 2011-12-07
Packaged: 2017-10-27 01:13:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/289949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Canarii/pseuds/Canarii
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kate watches Ashley watching her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Engaging

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lannakitty](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lannakitty/gifts).



> A followup to Lannakitty's Returning...Which is a follow-up to my earlier fic Displacement....YOUR MOVE BRO.

Kate watches Ashley watching her.

It took her less then a week before she found herself back in Old City. There was a job, she'd excused, she'd taken the bus to Seattle and had gone no further when rumors began trickling down from the north of something nasty and rare in the sewers there.  
They could take care of it, she told herself. Especially with little miss lethal weapon back. But she went anyway. The creature had already been bagged by the time she swept back into town.

Kate rented a motel room, just in case. In case of what? Good business in Old City, she wasn't getting run off without a good reason.

For a little while it was business as usual. She hunted and she trapped and she sold. And as a favor to the people who had chosen not to hand her over to the Cabal, she made sure nothing too nasty made it out onto the open market in her corner.

It's three weeks in, when she's handing a shipment of columbian centipede larvae over to a seedy but enthusiastic dealer, that she found out that her presencse hadn't gone unnoticed.

"Something I should know about these?" Remy's voice had cracked suspiciously, nodding at the crate.

"You know I only deal in quality, Rem", she'd snapped back.

"Not saying you don't", he backed up, well aware that she was armed, The juicer shivered, looking back over his shoulder, "But whatsername, Magnus' girl, she's been throwing your name around some of the local places. Don't worry!", he said quickly, "I'm not going to roll, but maybe this would be a good time to get out of dodge."

Kate switched motels that night, but she didn';t leave. Staying under the radar was one thing she did exceptionally well, and something that was a cousin to daring and stepbrother to masochism was keeping her firmly planted. Just out of reach.

She didn't know exactly why Ashley would be looking for her, but she knew that was on confrontation she'd rather not have. There was no easy way of saying, "Hi, I shot you with a rocket launcher and then kind of stepped into your life, truce?" after all.  
In the month since her hasty departure from the Sanctuary she'd gotten five calls from it's staff. Four had been from Will ,and the last, surpriingly, from Henry. She hadn't picked up, and there were five equal voice messages she'd never listened to.

She switched her phone out for a disposable, something she should have done a long time ago.

Six weeks, and she's stayed in most of the dive motels that side of the bridge. Running out of places to hide. But she doesn't leave., Good business, no reason to leave. She had  
every right to survive..in the four to six figure a job range.

And so maybe some of the shadier operations in Old City suddenly shut down, or were already nicely packaged up for Helen Magnus' cavalry when they burst in guns blazing. And maybe one or two tips about incoming shipments and dropoffs made it to the Network's ears.

Kate owed them, and she preferred debts to stay in her favor.

Two months. Nothing to do at the end of a long day of chasing god knows what through some absurdly spacious sewers but have a stiff drink. First time she's properly surfaced in a week, with nothing on the line Kate had been living off of takeout, pay per view, and the blessed monotony of boredom.

She takes a hearty shot just to warm up, flicking a peanut across the bar with a nail. Monty the bartender, who wasn't the most calm individual on a good day, was looking lpositively rodentlike in his nervous demeaner that evening.

Kate looked up at him.

"What?" She growled.

"I...I don't want any trouble..."

And of course, the blonde menace had struck. Kate rolled her eyes and slid off the barstool, heading towards the back. She grabbed a coaster out from under an unsuspecting patron's beverage and dug a pen out of her back pocket.

"Hey", she said, sidling over to a regular whose business she was familiar with, "Make sure a little birdy gets this to Buffy the Vampire, k?" She scribbled a brief line on the coaster before tossing it in front of him. He grumbled something about owing favours under his breath before taking it.

"Fine, but you owe-"

She was gone. The coaster read. _A.M - 1635 W Polo St. 10pm tom. -K.F_

Outside, Kate zipped her jacket up to her throat against the chill and headed back down towards her latest motel.

"Your move, Blondie. "


End file.
